Potential Listeria Contamination Sparks Huge Recall

In potentially quite disgusting news, nearly half a million pounds of food has been recalled across 13 states due to a potential Listeria contamination.

According to The Christian Post, the recall was started by the Manda Packing Company of Baker, La. It began on April 10 and initially only applied to 20,166 pounds of roast beef. But by today the recall has grown to include products across several types of food and several different brands, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced. By current calculations, 468,000 pounds of food have been affected.

Listeria is a potentially lethal bacteria, and products affected by the recall include roast beef, ham, turkey breast, headcheese, tasso pork, corned beef, and more. Accordign to the Christian Post, products affected by the recall were sent to 13 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Overall the recalled meat products cover 41 different names with different sell-by dates. Some also could have wound up at commercial delis.

Consuming Listeria bacteria can cause listeriosis, which is a very uncommon but potentially fatal disease. The USDA points out that healthy people are unlikely to contract it, though pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are most at risk.